Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[djos]

I'm glad that you are happy with yours, it is as you say, small but highly efficient. The temperature jumping around on the display does settle down the more use it but as the thermocouple is part of the tip assembly, this will change with every tip change you make.

I'd seriously recommend that you consider the modifications I made to mine with regard to the earthing of the case itself and the connection between power socket and the board itself as I feel strongly that this will become a source of problems in the future.

I'm so happy that I've purchased another as a collection of parts to assemble and I have got 2 iron holders / rests like the attached and I have enlarged the holles on the top and dropped my spare tips into them (they need something in the bottom to hold them upright but I'm working on that) and it keeps them nice and handy to hand when required.

Nice to see that we have the same desoldering tool (mine is the desoldering half) I think it works brilliantly, how do you get on with yours?

Good to know   

Can you link back to your earth mod, I forgot to bookmark it. 

I must admit I'm tempted to buy the other brand (starting with K) with the 5 pin connector and flogging off my combo soldering and desoldering station - only issue is I'd have to buy a standalone desoldering station to replace it. It's a bloody good desoldering station and I can't fault it!

[Specmaster]

Here you go, I have copied the whole posting and reinserted it here as its my experience that if you try to link back to a particular posting, it usually take you back to the generic thread which of course we are already in.

What I did was also to scrap away the plating on the edges where the end plates screw together and also the back of the screws and the countersinks where the screws screw in. Here I used a countersink bit to remove enough plating to allow the screw to make good contact. When the screws are tightened they make a good connection with the two parts of the main case so when fully assembled the case is completely earthed.

Had another look at the T12 solder station and it looks like a relatively simple cure both for the IEC connection to the PCB and also the earthing. the live tag of the IEC connector could be bent at right angles towards the fuse holder which is integrated with the connector as it only connects to the PCB on a short trace before connecting to the fuse, so the plan is to make this connection directly. The Neutral could be connected via a flexible cable if the IEC is removed from the backplate and rotated 180 degrees and snapped back. This leaves space to the left of the top smoothing cap to fix a long earthing stud which will also double up as a PCB movement prohibiter to prevent it moving backwards. It cannot move forwards as it comes up against the power sockets to the controller board at the front. The earth and neutral will need to be recabled and soldered to the PCB along with the return from the fuse.

It also turns out that they have infact tried to earth the case but failed miserably. There is a trace that runs the full length of the PCB on both sides, exposed, this is the earth trace. The idea being that when located in the case channels this connects to the case and earths it. Problem is that the board is a rather loose fit in the channels and also it is black anodized and so acts like an insulator.

I will carry out this modification and put photos up here once completed.

The nest post will be the finished unit showing the revised connections at the rear of the PCB and the mains socket mods.

[mnementh]

Got home from holidays on Wednesday after 10 brilliant days on the Central coast of NSW, paid my local post office a visit and collected 4 parcels including my Quicko T12 Soldering Station. 

In true EEVBlog style I took it apart without turning it on first! 

Mines the "compact one" like SpecMasters: (SNIP A HUGE BUTTLOAD OF AWESOME PICS FOR BREVITY'S SAKE)

It needed some TLC as many of the soldering joints were frankly crap and the PCB needed a clean with Isopropyl! I re-did all the TH joints with some 60/40 Rosin core solder:



I cant believe how small this thing is and how fast it heats up! Super Impressive and really nice to solder with, the handle is so light and your hand is so close to the tip the control you have is great!

I have found the tip temp display seems to jump around a lot but for the money im not complaining. I just need a proper handle holder for it and something to hold the tips not being used  (the tips are all really nice quality too, this was very pleasant surprise).

High res pics for those wanting a closer look: https://imgur.com/gallery/f5We0

Glad you like it as much as I like mine; and I bet you a doughnut before long you'll have another just to make portable as I'm doing myself. 

One thing I don't like about this version is the JST-XH connectors on the power connections; they inevitably become a point of failure when used in this kind of resistive heating circuit. I much prefer the connections and fine-strand silicone wires I solder together myself on my DIY version. 

Made here in the UK too!

Hopefully not like this:

I don't know for sure but I think they make all their gear here in the UK?

I love Maurice... I've worked with him on a few occasions.  Actually if I'm honest with myself, I've BEEN him on more than a few occasions too... 

What is it with you Limeys?  You drive on the wrong side of the road, you put your power switches in upside-down....   

Our power switches turn off when you lean on them and our dominant hand is conveniently situated on the side you can stick it out of the window to make signs at other drivers

Replaced batteries in the TF930. This is why you need to use the correct sized batteries - little thermistor hiding there which is part of the charge controller. You have to blob some heatsink compound on it so it contacts the battery properly.



Anyway job done. Works perfectly:



Edit: rotate image

And what the hell is this thing with Reginald Dwight?    Oh wait, excuse me... SIR Reginald Dwight.

Yeah, I'm looking at these pics and I see no reason whatsoever you can't use a regular AA size cell. The A cell you're using is 17mm diameter while a AA cell is 14.5mm diameter, so maximum difference between the two would be 1.75mm that you'd have to make up. Easily done by mounting the cell offset a little or at worst by moving the thermistor half a pad closer. But you really shouldn't have to mess with any of that, since the way the board is intended to have the batteries mounted, the smaller cell would just sit a bit lower in the recess; your little dab of goose grease will for sure make up that tiny difference.

If you were feeling really froggy, there's plenty of room there to sub a single 18650 cell; the operating voltage should be close enough. Add a micro-USB single-cell Battery Maintenance System PCB available from fleaBay for less than a buck, and you can charge/power it from any USB port on anything, including a power bank.

I'm glad that you are happy with yours, it is as you say, small but highly efficient. The temperature jumping around on the display does settle down the more use it but as the thermocouple is part of the tip assembly, this will change with every tip change you make.

I'd seriously recommend that you consider the modifications I made to mine with regard to the earthing of the case itself and the connection between power socket and the board itself as I feel strongly that this will become a source of problems in the future.

I'm so happy that I've purchased another as a collection of parts to assemble and I have got 2 iron holders / rests like the attached and I have enlarged the holles on the top and dropped my spare tips into them (they need something in the bottom to hold them upright but I'm working on that) and it keeps them nice and handy to hand when required.

Nice to see that we have the same desoldering tool (mine is the desoldering half) I think it works brilliantly, how do you get on with yours?

Good to know   

Can you link back to your earth mod, I forgot to bookmark it. 

I must admit I'm tempted to buy the other brand (starting with K) with the 5 pin connector and flogging off my combo soldering and desoldering station - only issue is I'd have to buy a standalone desoldering station to replace it. It's a bloody good desoldering station and I can't fault it!

Yes, it appears that the new "Ver 2.1" controllers with larger 1.3" OLED now have multiple tip profiles to account for the different thermocouple/heating curves of the different profile T12 family tips. Something I just found out about myself while looking at the new KSGER controller kit.


Now, especially since it appears my much-desired extruded AL enclosure no longer exists anywhere, I find myself drooling a little over their combined dual-function enclosure and 2-in-1 controller.

But... US$115 just for the enclosure and controller, without gun or handle or even power supply... Naaah. I just can't make myself do it.

mnem
*Juicy*

[Specmaster]

Here is the second part of the mods.

Back on Tea, I meanwhile is getting on with the modification of the T12 solder station, looks like I'm the sad old git here, truth is that it's this or sitting through hours of the soaps on TV, which would you prefer [emoji23][emoji319][emoji319][emoji320]

Edit: Here are the photos as promised. As you can see, only 1 screw required to act both as earth stud and PCB retainer, board is wedged tightly between the stud and the front sockets so is going nowhere. IEC socket, removed, flipped over and had the tabs bend at right angles to increase the internal clearance, heat shrink used where required to increase insulation between the terminals and the wires as there is a lot of criss crossing to reach their respective terminals on the PCB.
All tested and works a treat, mechanical stress between PCB and IEC socket is now removed. job done and copious amount of sparkling wine consumed. 

[djos]

Thanks specmaster, I might take the simpler route and drill my ground into the rear panel and just leave the direct attached power socket as is. 

[Specmaster]

I'm awaiting the arrival of my second version now made up with parts from Banggood and AliExpress, Banggood for the Blue controller as recommended by mnementh and the handle he also recommended from AliExpress, the case is again by Quicko as is the power supply because it saves having to drill holes in the case or use sticky pads which can come undone and allow other power supplies to rattle around in the case, not a good idea when you have 240v in there. I shall swapping over the front plate from case for one supplied with the controllers so it does not leave any unfilled holes.

The reason for this approach to the system is that it is then the industry norm with 5 pin plugs and 5 core leads so any of the prewired iron handles will work with it whereas the ones we currently have use 4 cores and pins only so if you wanted to make a spare handle, which I have you have to modify it each time.

Here the photos of the parts as selected.

If I were you, I'd keep the desoldering station as it is, you can switch it independently of the soldering side which would then become a spare station if ever needed.

[bd139]

Can you buy 5 pin connector pairs on their own. I might grab some and standardise too. 4 pin looks like a headache in the future.

Edit: also look at the typo on the enclosure above 

[Specmaster]

Can you buy 5 pin connector pairs on their own. I might grab some and standardise too. 4 pin looks like a headache in the future.

Yes you can but I'm not sure if the Quicko controller will accept the 5th wire otherwise I expect that they would have used it in their version. Its not a real headache to modify as I brought the 5 core / pin hande in the 1st place and then discovered my mistake, so purchased a 4 pin pair of Ebay and modified the handle, simple enough. Pull out the thermistor and cut the white wire out, relocate the vibration switch from the Earth tag on the handle to the heater -ve tag and remove the 5 pin plug on the other end and fit the 4 pin plug, cut out the white wire again as this is now replaced by the blue. Connect as the supplied handle and job is done.

The Quicko version works exactly the same but the other systems use the thermistor as an added safeguard in case of thermal runaway if the controller should fail I guess. If you follow the wiring diagram you will see that they bond the earth and -ve back on the controller but Quicko keep these separated, I'm not sure how it would react if you were to bond them and fit a 5 pin socket. Thought it best best not to risk it but invest in a new system altogether, to operate side by side and then see how they behave and last and TBH I'm not expecting any differences.

[bd139]

Ok will wait and see what I have in hand (terrible pun) when it arrives.

I’m mainly interested in playing around with this and building my own controller. I have a master plan to build a fully analogue PID controller as they require some black magic I like playing with (loop tuning). I notice a lot of these little stations just use rudimentary on/off switching with hysteresis at the controller. I’m intending on using PWM to see if I can keep the temperature more stable under different thermal loads.

[Mr. Scram]

Ok will wait and see what I have in hand (terrible pun) when it arrives.

I’m mainly interested in playing around with this and building my own controller. I have a master plan to build a fully analogue PID controller as they require some black magic I like playing with (loop tuning). I notice a lot of these little stations just use rudimentary on/off switching with hysteresis at the controller. I’m intending on using PWM to see if I can keep the temperature more stable under different thermal loads.

Do you use any specific method to tune a PID controller? Some of the known methods work, but often result in rather nervously or tentatively tuned systems.

[Specmaster]

Ok will wait and see what I have in hand (terrible pun) when it arrives.

I’m mainly interested in playing around with this and building my own controller. I have a master plan to build a fully analogue PID controller as they require some black magic I like playing with (loop tuning). I notice a lot of these little stations just use rudimentary on/off switching with hysteresis at the controller. I’m intending on using PWM to see if I can keep the temperature more stable under different thermal loads.

What would be useful is an automatic boost control under high thermal loads rather than having to give the encoder a push to invoke it.

[bd139]

Ok will wait and see what I have in hand (terrible pun) when it arrives.

I’m mainly interested in playing around with this and building my own controller. I have a master plan to build a fully analogue PID controller as they require some black magic I like playing with (loop tuning). I notice a lot of these little stations just use rudimentary on/off switching with hysteresis at the controller. I’m intending on using PWM to see if I can keep the temperature more stable under different thermal loads.

Do you use any specific method to tune a PID controller? Some of the known methods work, but often result in rather nervously or tentatively tuned systems.

Manual tuning. One reason I bought a DS1054Z is so i can watch the parameters. I discarded all mathematical methods as “huh?” 

The design approach is based in the rather good treatise at http://ludens.cl/Electron/loops/loops.html

Plus some of AoE. Some of it is luck. Some is observation. Most of it is avoiding phase shifts resulting in oscillation.

I also like designing PLLs. Sick twisted individual that I am

[bd139]

Ok will wait and see what I have in hand (terrible pun) when it arrives.

I’m mainly interested in playing around with this and building my own controller. I have a master plan to build a fully analogue PID controller as they require some black magic I like playing with (loop tuning). I notice a lot of these little stations just use rudimentary on/off switching with hysteresis at the controller. I’m intending on using PWM to see if I can keep the temperature more stable under different thermal loads.

What would be useful is an automatic boost control under high thermal loads rather than having to give the encoder a push to invoke it.

In theory that’s one of the advantages of PID loops. In reality, not so easy, but fun

[Mr. Scram]

Manual tuning. One reason I bought a DS1054Z is so i can watch the parameters. I discarded all mathematical methods as “huh?” 

The design approach is based in the rather good treatise at http://ludens.cl/Electron/loops/loops.html

Plus some of AoE. Some of it is luck. Some is observation. Most of it is avoiding phase shifts resulting in oscillation.

I also like designing PLLs. Sick twisted individual that I am

Yeah, I don't enjoy tuning PID controllers. Getting it right and the thing suddenly coming to life is magical, though. It's worth the pain.

[bitseeker]

TEA + Bentley = deep pockets for more TEA

I'd argue the reverse. No money left of more TEA!

Only if you've got poor money management.

[Mr. Scram]

Only if you've got poor money management.

You'd be surprised how many people who are seemingly rich have. Even people with very well paying jobs manage to get themselves in a pickle by simply spending more than comes in.

[bitseeker]

Oh, I know (was just being facetious). It's often the unassuming ones that have the really big bucks. They didn't get rich by spending frivolously. Now, when it comes to TEA, well...

[Specmaster]

Most of them get rich of the backs of others.

[bitseeker]

Yep, but don't want to go too far down those rabbit holes. Our beloved thread might get locked.

[Specmaster]

Still true, just making the point thats all.

[xrunner]

Yep, but don't want to go too far down those rabbit holes. Our beloved thread might get locked.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! 

[Mr. Scram]

Most of them get rich of the backs of others.

The lesser fortunate also live the lives they have thanks to the backs of others. An inferiority complex isn't going to make things better.

[mnementh]

Ok will wait and see what I have in hand (terrible pun) when it arrives.

I’m mainly interested in playing around with this and building my own controller. I have a master plan to build a fully analogue PID controller as they require some black magic I like playing with (loop tuning). I notice a lot of these little stations just use rudimentary on/off switching with hysteresis at the controller. I’m intending on using PWM to see if I can keep the temperature more stable under different thermal loads.

What would be useful is an automatic boost control under high thermal loads rather than having to give the encoder a push to invoke it.

In theory that’s one of the advantages of PID loops. In reality, not so easy, but fun

I see no reason you couldn't mod the handle with a different silicone cable and a tactile switch to make the "Boost" button a little more intuitive to use.


This is the joy of the MetCal/Thermaltronics SmartHeat system; it senses the shift in loading instantly on contact with the work and increases power to the inductive coil, without having to wait for the "tip cools down, sensor senses change in temp, demand more heat" part of the loop.

Not sure, but perhaps the whole system qualifies as an electro-chemical PID controller...


mnem
This sh** makes my brain hurt. 

[Mr. Scram]

I see no reason you couldn't mod the handle with a different silicone cable and a tactile switch to make the "Boost" button a little more intuitive to use.


This is the joy of the MetCal/Thermaltronics SmartHeat system; it senses the shift in loading instantly on contact with the work and increases power to the inductive coil, without having to wait for the "tip cools down, sensor senses change in temp, demand more heat" part of the loop.

Not sure, but perhaps the whole system qualifies as an electro-chemical PID controller...


mnem
This sh** makes my brain hurt. 

I'm not familiar with the system, but from watching a clip it looks like tips are a single temperature only?

[bd139]

I think that is the case. Same with weller. Well with the TCP irons you put a 700/800oF cartridge in now and then the tip. Works pretty well even though it’s 1950’s tech. Just touch it on a huge pad and you hear the click in the handle and it turns up the boiler